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“Couldn’t resist. Nice work on the content creation, by the way. You’re doing the thing.”

“Yeah, well, it got me fired, but thanks.”

“You got fired?” Jonathan broke off a piece of a Hershey’s bar and handed it to her.

“Yep. Last week. Something about a noncompete clause.” Phoebe carefully assembled a s’more. Part of her wanted to redirect the conversation back to them—their relationship—but she also wanted to confide in Jonathan. Confiding in him had always felt so natural. They just got each other.

“But I’ve been thinking,” she said slowly, “that it might have been a blessing in disguise. I’ve been toying with the idea of starting my own thing.”

“Your own what?”

“I want to start my own digital marketing agency. I have the experience. I have the contacts. And now I have the free time. I think I could really do it.”

She had expected Jonathan to immediately cry something along the lines of You could totally do it! But he just gazed at her silently, his lips slightly parted.

“What? Do I have chocolate on my face?”

“No, it’s just”—he chuckled lightly—“I’ve been wanting to do the exact same thing.”

“For real?”

Jonathan nodded. “I’ve been feeling sort of restless at the agency. Like, I’m good at what I do there, but there’s nowhere to go. I considered looking for a new role somewhere else, but then it would be more of the same. It seems like a good time for a fresh start and, I don’t know, a new—”

“A new challenge?”

“Exactly.”

“That’s how I feel, too.”

“Don’t get me wrong; I haven’t done much. Right now, I just have a doc with some random ideas. Like an outline. Bullet points, really.”

Phoebe stared at him, amazed, and then pulled out her phone and opened Google Docs. “Sort of like this?” She showed him the screen.

He grinned and rubbed a hand over his face. “Very much like that, yeah.”

Phoebe laughed somewhat disbelievingly. They had always been like this. So in sync. The first time they’d met, at Jonathan’s college roommate’s birthday party, they’d struck up a conversation about books. Jonathan had mentioned that he enjoyed reading creative nonfiction books. Phoebe had been reading Big Magic at the time, so she’d started telling him about it.

“Hey, no spoilers, please,” he’d joked. He’d reached into his messenger bag and pulled out a paperback copy of Big Magic.

It was a delightful coincidence that cemented their budding friendship. But those little coincidences kept happening, to the point where they joked that they should be able to communicate via ESP. So Phoebe shouldn’t have been surprised that, once again, they were on the same page.

But the whole situation was nothing short of surprising. Running into Jonathan in this small town that neither of them lived in? The fact that she was sitting here, toasting marshmallows with him? She certainly hadn’t predicted that when she’d bought the marshmallows. And apparently, after eight years apart, they still had their ESP connection.

“You know,” Phoebe said thoughtfully, “if you want to start a marketing business and I want to start a marketing business…”

Jonathan waved a finger at her. “Don’t get carried away, like you—”

“Don’t you dare say like I always do!” Phoebe nudged his leg with the toe of her sneaker.

“I was just going to say…” He paused long enough to create an atmosphere of suspense. “We should at least read each other’s notes first. To see if we’re on—”

“The same page?” Phoebe finished.

“Exactly.” A grin overtook Jonathan’s face, like he couldn’t hide his excitement anymore.

They swapped phones and began to read.

Chapter 8